Yorke Peninsula League

[On The Chest]

Not for 1 minute am i saying he did or did'nt do these things above but it does surprise me if this did happen as Wilson is one of the best coaches I've played under...

I have a huge amount of respect for the guy.

Which club was that with and how long ago Carey?

[daysofourlives]

I'v noticed how quiet this thread has become since the departure of Burgess from Wallaroo. It seems he bought more than just goal kicking genius to this league.
Publicity that you just cant put a price on from the "human billboard"

[willowupfront]

Hi to all. After reading some of the comments on my recent departure from the Ardrossan Football Club I thought it only fair to sign up and express my side of the story and to attempt to fix a few miss givings that have been shamlessly posted on this site.
Firstly I want to be clear that I didnt have to take this course and could have decided to remain silent on this topic but thats not me. I dont hide behind any false pretenseces and like to be up front with people hence the name willowupfront. You know who I am and I dont pretend to be anyone im not.
secondly I have come on here to answer to any questions that anyone may have regarding this topic and will promise you that I will answer it with honesty and dignity. I need to be clear that I am the type of person that only deals with facts and am certainly not here to work off hear say. I dont take much out of comments like "My mate told me" or "I heard". Never been into gossip and people that know me for who and what I stand for will know thats not my nature. I deal with facts and treat people how I meet them.
Lastly before I get onto the subject more I will also make mention that although most of you out there wouldnt know me from the next stranger I will say this event has effected me a great deal but even worse effected my children as they can not understand what took place....I suppose what im trying to say is that in all this i think its easy to make comments and have opinions but there is more important things other than me that get effected by these decissions, something much deeper than that and its called our families. So unless you have had direct assossiation no matter how minimal with me I would expect your opinions would be factual rather than hear say...People that know me know I dont need to explain myself and for those that want to believe what they want then that no problems to me either. Just looking to clear up some facts for those football people that actually care enough about our great game to want to know the truth.

[The Big Shrek]

Boring league. Only two real contenders then daylight. Only news is a b grade full forward and a coach of the bottom side leaving the peninsula.

[willowupfront]

Supersonicgun????
Just a response to some of your comments and by the read of them some clearly no where near the mark!!!

Granted you have an opinion and your entitled to one but my question to you would be when, where and what capacity have you ever been involved in a footy club that i was coach of???? Or in fact have you ever even heard me address any of my teams ever???? Just wondering where you may have formed you opinion that im as you put it "a good motivator rubbish coach". Again no problem with your opinion if its formed from your own experience of knowing me.

And to clear up a few people's comments not just your's about not bringing players with me. Well I guess all you people that have been hearing things from "mates" would have also heard the club, no sorry john hall who was backed by the club wouldnt allow me to have any imput into recruiting which i strongly argued against at the initial interview without any success. In fact I was told that I dont have knowledge of the comp so therefor have no idea the type of players required so you will have no involvement. I even questioned some of the choices and got told by john to worry about my job as coach and leave the recruiting to him. The ironic thing to this story was I could have brought a number of players but i was more interested in developing the local boys further. One in particular i could and did want was a 20yr old ruckman with massive competitive juices standing 6 foot 7 and eager to learn but the club again told me to stay out of that area. We then lost the only ruckman the club has A or B grade the week of the first round to a simple incident at training and missed the next 5 weeks. No ruckman at all now. Guess your "mates" didnt know that( Fancy that!!) Robbo the one recruit they did allow me to persue had family issues in particular him and his wife having a new born within the season proper and decided the travelling may be too much for them all. No problems i respect the fact that family come before all others..And supersonicgun your comments on Nth pines are just bazzar and completely off the mark they are laughable.... but im happy to share the facts with you as i was directly involved...Not sure if you could say the same thing???

[countryfootyfan]

I'v noticed how quiet this thread has become since the departure of Burgess from Wallaroo. It seems he bought more than just goal kicking genius to this league.
Publicity that you just cant put a price on from the "human billboard"

He didn't bring goal kicking...

[willowupfront]

Any truth that the football committee picks the teams at ardrossan?? Then the coach has to play with what he is given??

Norm11. Caught up with a mate that is involved at the club yesterday. From his knowledge which would be a lot, the coach, assistant coach, captain, selector and football manager select the weekly teams so I guess the coach would have a fair bit of input as to who plays.
He went on to say that they have had a lot of injuries to key players this year. Also that the coach for the previous 3 years had done a very good job with limited recruiting by the club. He did it for just about no $, promoted a lot of young lads from colts to give them experience and had the respect of the players. Surprisingly to most members and the players at the club, the club decided to replace him with wilson, spent a fair bit of money on players and obviously from results have gone backwards. He said the players had no respect for Wilson due to his demeanor, attitude and abuse rather than advice he gave them. Members started to not attend functions such as the members day, thurs night bbq etc. Now that the club has got Scott Teakle at the helm, some members have returned but it will be a tough few weeks for the rest of this season and then a lot of rebuilding will have to be done again.

On the chest.

Same question to you. When, where and in what capacity have you been involved in at the same footy club i have coached for you to have formed your opinions re my coaching ability and style??? Again if its from direct assossiation then I respect your opinion if not well I guess your easily lead then.

To address some of your comments. Firstly your comments on selections and the fact your "mate" is so involved that what ever he say's must be true..."cause he knows" is not quite right so I guess your mate dosnt know it all. Yes I was involved with selection as would be expected and with a third majority imput. I say this because along with myself the captain, v/capt, B grade coach and A grade assistant coach.(not quite like your mates line up). While I had imput ultimately the selection deccissions would come down to the capt and v/capt as they were the blokes out there running around with them on game day and the fact my method of coaching is about impowerment and I wanted the leadership to grow by taking more responsability in the selection room. Hope this clears this issue up???
The other comments you made also needs to be addressed as again either you or your "mate" certainly dont share the same opinion that was relayed to me from the committee at the interview process at the begining of the year. The A grade captain was also involved with that process and his opinion of past years were of the same as the committees and that certainly wasnt a glowing report.

Happy to elabarate on that one further at a later date.

[Mythical Creature]

Supersonicgun????
Just a response to some of your comments and by the read of them some clearly no where near the mark!!!

Granted you have an opinion and your entitled to one but my question to you would be when, where and what capacity have you ever been involved in a footy club that i was coach of???? Or in fact have you ever even heard me address any of my teams ever???? Just wondering where you may have formed you opinion that im as you put it "a good motivator rubbish coach". Again no problem with your opinion if its formed from your own experience of knowing me.

And to clear up a few people's comments not just your's about not bringing players with me. Well I guess all you people that have been hearing things from "mates" would have also heard the club, no sorry john hall who was backed by the club wouldnt allow me to have any imput into recruiting which i strongly argued against at the initial interview without any success. In fact I was told that I dont have knowledge of the comp so therefor have no idea the type of players required so you will have no involvement. I even questioned some of the choices and got told by john to worry about my job as coach and leave the recruiting to him. The ironic thing to this story was I could have brought a number of players but i was more interested in developing the local boys further. One in particular i could and did want was a 20yr old ruckman with massive competitive juices standing 6 foot 7 and eager to learn but the club again told me to stay out of that area. We then lost the only ruckman the club has A or B grade the week of the first round to a simple incident at training and missed the next 5 weeks. No ruckman at all now. Guess your "mates" didnt know that( Fancy that!!) Robbo the one recruit they did allow me to persue had family issues in particular him and his wife having a new born within the season proper and decided the travelling may be too much for them all. No problems i respect the fact that family come before all others..And supersonicgun your comments on Nth pines are just bazzar and completely off the mark they are laughable.... but im happy to share the facts with you as i was directly involved...Not sure if you could say the same thing???

There are plenty of clubs out there who don't want the coach involved in recruiting for the obvious reason that if the coach goes so do the players. Warning bells would ring in my ears if a coach wanted to bring his own players into a club.

[norm11]

Should still be involved with interviewing recruits.

[Champ]

There are plenty of clubs out there who don't want the coach involved in recruiting for the obvious reason that if the coach goes so do the players. Warning bells would ring in my ears if a coach wanted to bring his own players into a club.[/quote]


MC that's ridiculous; theres a thing called the points system which stops this happening. Coaches might be able to drag one or two but not groups unless going to the poorest/weakest club in a league and then they still contend with coin and current points players so get with the times.

[willowupfront]

There are plenty of clubs out there who don't want the coach involved in recruiting for the obvious reason that if the coach goes so do the players. Warning bells would ring in my ears if a coach wanted to bring his own players into a club.

MC that's ridiculous; theres a thing called the points system which stops this happening. Coaches might be able to drag one or two but not groups unless going to the poorest/weakest club in a league and then they still contend with coin and current points players so get with the times.[/quote]

Champ I repect your comments. I will point out that I did state I was more interested in developing local talent further and actually made that quite clear in my original application. No problems there. But to add comment I think recruiting to a degree is a bit of "Hit or Miss" type situation and this is compounded by the fact the YPFL is a distance to travel for the better players recruited from the city. Add the fact you have the Gawler comp and APFL comp to contend with as well as the richer clubs in Adelaide makes it even more competitive to secure good recruits. It also come down to the intensions of the coach in the first place. By this I mean if a coach takes on a coaching job purely for their own gains then yes the situation of players leaving will happen if the coach leaves but if he takes the job to hopefully make a positive difference to that club then his intensions would be for the players to stay if he feels the environment is a good one but wants to move onto other opportunities. I know for a fact Nth Pines experienced exactly what you said when their coach quit and took 13 players with him. Almost crippled the club as they struggled to field one side every week there after. I will make it clear that I wasnt interested in taking players from Nth Pines although most of them were mates that came because I was coach as I know how this can deplete a club. That and the fact as I said I was focussed more on the local development.

I didnt have a problem with the club's reasoning for not being involved in recruiting as they were right in their assessment that I did have limited Knowledge of the YPFL so therefor needed support on types of players required to mix in with the local boy's to complete what we didnt already have. No problems with that but Norm11 your 100% right the coach no matter what should be at least involved with the process even if their not driving it. I made this clear at the interview and was told sternly "No". In hindsight I can maybe see why as I feel the person that wanted to control that area turned out to be one of a couple knifing me in the back while the whole time smiling to my face!!! Nothing will work at any footy club while you have certain individuals on the committee driving their own agenda's and back stabbing other members.

Would like to add all the recruits this year have been outstanding not only on field but the way they have conducted themselves off the field mingling with the locals was nothing short of sensational. To me recruiting has always been about the quallity of person rather than quallity of ability and these boy's certainly have both as people and footballers.

[willowupfront]

There are plenty of clubs out there who don't want the coach involved in recruiting for the obvious reason that if the coach goes so do the players. Warning bells would ring in my ears if a coach wanted to bring his own players into a club.

MC that's ridiculous; theres a thing called the points system which stops this happening. Coaches might be able to drag one or two but not groups unless going to the poorest/weakest club in a league and then they still contend with coin and current points players so get with the times.

Champ I repect your comments. I will point out that I did state I was more interested in developing local talent further and actually made that quite clear in my original application. No problems there. But to add comment I think recruiting to a degree is a bit of "Hit or Miss" type situation and this is compounded by the fact the YPFL is a distance to travel for the better players recruited from the city. Add the fact you have the Gawler comp and APFL comp to contend with as well as the richer clubs in Adelaide makes it even more competitive to secure good recruits. It also come down to the intensions of the coach in the first place. By this I mean if a coach takes on a coaching job purely for their own gains then yes the situation of players leaving will happen if the coach leaves but if he takes the job to hopefully make a positive difference to that club then his intensions would be for the players to stay if he feels the environment is a good one but wants to move onto other opportunities. I know for a fact Nth Pines experienced exactly what you said when their coach quit and took 13 players with him. Almost crippled the club as they struggled to field one side every week there after. I will make it clear that I wasnt interested in taking players from Nth Pines although most of them were mates that came because I was coach as I know how this can deplete a club. That and the fact as I said I was focussed more on the local development.

I didnt have a problem with the club's reasoning for not being involved in recruiting as they were right in their assessment that I did have limited Knowledge of the YPFL so therefor needed support on types of players required to mix in with the local boy's to complete what we didnt already have. No problems with that but Norm11 your 100% right the coach no matter what should be at least involved with the process even if their not driving it. I made this clear at the interview and was told sternly "No". In hindsight I can maybe see why as I feel the person that wanted to control that area turned out to be one of a couple knifing me in the back while the whole time smiling to my face!!! Nothing will work at any footy club while you have certain individuals on the committee driving their own agenda's and back stabbing other members.

Would like to add all the recruits this year have been outstanding not only on field but the way they have conducted themselves off the field mingling with the locals was nothing short of sensational. To me recruiting has always been about the quallity of person rather than quallity of ability and these boy's certainly have both as people and footballers.[/quote]

Champ im sorry for using your name last post as I agree with your comments fully. I meant to direct the reply to MC......Again my apology.

[countryfootyfan]

Willowupfront,it is admirable that you have come on here to defend yourself, but do you think that you did improve these local lads? Football is often judged by ladder position and the wins and losses column, and looking at both of these considering that there were more gains than losses recruiting-wise, it appears that the club hasnt improved at all..

[willowupfront]

Willowupfront,it is admirable that you have come on here to defend yourself, but do you think that you did improve these local lads? Football is often judged by ladder position and the wins and losses column, and looking at both of these considering that there were more gains than losses recruiting-wise, it appears that the club hasnt improved at all..

CFF.....Thank you for your comments. not sure if some of your other comments were 100% right but thats ok to.

Firstly I must be clear im certainly not here to defend myself because people who know me, know exactly what I represent as a person. I am here to clear up a few comments that have been so far from the truth I question there motives???

To answer you Q truthfully I feel I did in particular the younger ones. Im not silly enough to know your not going to satisfy everyone all the time but from the feedback that I was recieving from not only players but also the club right up till our last training session which was the night before my sacking I felt we were on the right track....Im not going to sit hear and make excuses as to why our season went the way it did but injuries crippled us early in the season and each week instead of getting players back we would lose even more. This happened every week without fail and just started to get some players back towards the end. NO EXCUSES.....The problem this caused was that then filtered onto the local young players to step into key positions which they just wernt ready for..If you look from the outside at the stats you stated then I would have to agree with you 100% but there is always variables in footy. Other point is if you spoke to anyone that interviewed me at the start of the season including the current A grade capt the feeling was that a cultural problem had been present at the club for a number of years and this was causing members numbers and attendence to drop and the players (local mid aged) had formed an opinion they could just rock up on saturdays to play...In otherwords no one at training and therefor the local group hadnt developed any further...Their words mate not mine so please dont shoot the messenger. So I wonder how bad things were prior to my arrival and the fact some on the committee havnt got a nice word to say about other committee members makes me wonder even more how far behind the "eight ball" the club is with some of these people making descissions. President didnt have a nice word to say about footy director who never had a nice word about the A grade assistant coach and long term committee member and that member not having many kind words to say about anyone there including the B grade coach...Love my footy hate the politics as thats not my style as I like to be UP FRONT and obviously some of these people didnt like me questioning their attitudes and motives????

And your right, our in's were much better than our out's recruit wise no problems with that either but along with our ruckman and CHB our other early injuries and long term to key position players were Kenny and Milo so big shoe's to fill. Trouble was mate it was our injuries to our recruits and experienced players caused a ripple effect that forced inexperienced local boys to fill the breach and we just couldnt recover from then.

Will make it clear though I dont expect to be liked by everyone I meet and some are going to have issues no matter what you say or do...Again no probs with that. The feedback and text messages I have recieved from most of the players since has been amazing with their support. Very humbling in such a difficult time...

[David Brent]

Crows v Hounds this week. Possible GF preview? Who is everyone tipping?

[willowupfront]

Crows v Hounds this week. Possible GF preview? Who is everyone tipping?

Two very good teams that would perform well in most comps I would think. Both teams field a spread of talent in every department. Mixed with good youth and experienced senior player's they both form very powerfull opponents for any team.

I think without a doubt both will play in the GF just a matter of who's on song that day to take it out as there's not alot separating the two.
If my memory serves me well I think the Hounds won last time by a kick or two in an away game....I think their experience at home will just get them over the line again in a very entertaining game.

For what its worth I cant help but think the Hounds finals experience and great leadership from the senior playing group will carry them onto the premiership. Not alot between them though.....

Good luck to all the clubs this week and well into the final series...YPFL has many quality people involved in a number of very quality clubs and I wish you all the very best.

[Swamp Donkey]

Supersonicgun????
Just a response to some of your comments and by the read of them some clearly no where near the mark!!!

Granted you have an opinion and your entitled to one but my question to you would be when, where and what capacity have you ever been involved in a footy club that i was coach of???? Or in fact have you ever even heard me address any of my teams ever???? Just wondering where you may have formed you opinion that im as you put it "a good motivator rubbish coach". Again no problem with your opinion if its formed from your own experience of knowing me.

And to clear up a few people's comments not just your's about not bringing players with me. Well I guess all you people that have been hearing things from "mates" would have also heard the club, no sorry john hall who was backed by the club wouldnt allow me to have any imput into recruiting which i strongly argued against at the initial interview without any success. In fact I was told that I dont have knowledge of the comp so therefor have no idea the type of players required so you will have no involvement. I even questioned some of the choices and got told by john to worry about my job as coach and leave the recruiting to him. The ironic thing to this story was I could have brought a number of players but i was more interested in developing the local boys further. One in particular i could and did want was a 20yr old ruckman with massive competitive juices standing 6 foot 7 and eager to learn but the club again told me to stay out of that area. We then lost the only ruckman the club has A or B grade the week of the first round to a simple incident at training and missed the next 5 weeks. No ruckman at all now. Guess your "mates" didnt know that( Fancy that!!) Robbo the one recruit they did allow me to persue had family issues in particular him and his wife having a new born within the season proper and decided the travelling may be too much for them all. No problems i respect the fact that family come before all others..And supersonicgun your comments on Nth pines are just bazzar and completely off the mark they are laughable.... but im happy to share the facts with you as i was directly involved...Not sure if you could say the same thing???

There are plenty of clubs out there who don't want the coach involved in recruiting for the obvious reason that if the coach goes so do the players. Warning bells would ring in my ears if a coach wanted to bring his own players into a club.

I can't see a problem with coaches actively recruiting players, afterall they know the teams requirements more than anyone, especially committee members. In fact having several people working together is the best approach. Ultimately, its up to the club to make sure they never need to go out a recruit large numbers of players at one time, if the clubs gets itself into such a situation and they all leave when the coach does, its quite clear that the club has agreed to sign blokes that aren't there for the right reasons. Its pretty easy to tell the character of blokes these days, coaches dont want money hungry players making a mockery of his teams ethos.

[Swamp Donkey]

- The club wouldnt allow me to have any imput into recruiting which i strongly argued against at the initial interview without any success.
- In fact I was told that I dont have knowledge of the comp so therefor have no idea the type of players required so you will have no involvement.
- I even questioned some of the choices and got told by john to worry about my job as coach and leave the recruiting to him.

Personally, I would have withdrawn my application for the job at this stage, that approach by the club is laughable.

[norm11]

- The club wouldnt allow me to have any imput into recruiting which i strongly argued against at the initial interview without any success.
- In fact I was told that I dont have knowledge of the comp so therefor have no idea the type of players required so you will have no involvement.
- I even questioned some of the choices and got told by john to worry about my job as coach and leave the recruiting to him.

Personally, I would have withdrawn my application for the job at this stage, that approach by the club is laughable.

Have to agree here swap.

[countryfootyfan]

Crows v Hounds this week. Possible GF preview? Who is everyone tipping?

Two very good teams that would perform well in most comps I would think. Both teams field a spread of talent in every department. Mixed with good youth and experienced senior player's they both form very powerfull opponents for any team.

I think without a doubt both will play in the GF just a matter of who's on song that day to take it out as there's not alot separating the two.
If my memory serves me well I think the Hounds won last time by a kick or two in an away game....I think their experience at home will just get them over the line again in a very entertaining game.

For what its worth I cant help but think the Hounds finals experience and great leadership from the senior playing group will carry them onto the premiership. Not alot between them though.....

CMS to win by 5 goal. Had a few out last time they met.
Good luck to all the clubs this week and well into the final series...YPFL has many quality people involved in a number of very quality clubs and I wish you all the very best.